Eleven passengers were killed after a commercial bus travelling along the Abuja–Kaduna Expressway slammed into a stationary truck and burst into flames early Wednesday, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has said.
The crash, at about 5:39 a.m. at Maraban Isa, near Jere in Kaduna State, involved a white Fiat Ducato commercial bus and a MAN diesel truck that had developed a mechanical fault and was parked on the shoulder of the highway.
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The Kaduna Sector Commander of the FRSC, Andrew Longkam, through the command’s Public Relations Officer, said preliminary findings showed that excessive speed caused the collision.
“The truck had developed a mechanical fault and was already parked off the road,” Mr Longkam said.
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“The Fiat Ducato came on high speed, rammed into the stationary vehicle and burst into flames.”
According to him, the commercial bus was carrying 16 occupants, all of whom were male.
Eleven of them died in the crash, while the remaining five sustained injuries ranging from bruises and dislocations to deep cuts.
Mr Longkam said all those killed were occupants of the Fiat Ducato.
He explained that the truck had only two occupants—the driver and his assistant—who escaped unhurt because they were outside attempting to repair the broken-down vehicle when the bus crashed into it.
“The first three occupants seated in front of the bus were trapped after the collision,” he said. “The fire spread through the vehicle, while the remaining occupants also lost their lives.”
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The FRSC said its Jere Outpost received the report of the crash at 5:42 a.m., and a rescue team arrived at the scene four minutes later.
The rescue team evacuated the injured victims and the bodies of those killed were taken to Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Memorial Hospital, Sabon Wuse.
The report identified the truck as a white MAN diesel truck with registration number JJN 581 XB, while the second vehicle was a white Fiat Ducato commercial bus bearing registration number MAN 243 XA.
The FRSC classified the crash as a fatal multiple-vehicle collision and listed speed violation as its immediate cause.
The corps said the crash involved 18 persons in total: 11 fatalities, five injured victims and two survivors—the truck driver and his assistant.
